Thank you for reading this chapter :)
Simon sat in his office and watched Elena pacing across the room.She threw her hands in the air and glared hard. “You know, this is what your problem is,” she said to him, stopping and leaning on the table. “This. All this secrecy. I hate it.”And so did he. But what choice did he have? If he told her the truth—any truth at all—there was a huge chance she would walk out on him. And as far as Simon was concerned, that couldn’t happen. He would never allow her to walk out on him, not in this lifetime.She continued, “Why can’t you just be honest with me? Why can’t you trust—?”“I trust you enough,” he said, cutting her short and earning another hard glare from those beautiful, bright eyes of hers. Right now, she looked at him as if she didn’t believe a word he was saying. And maybe she was right to think like that. He hadn’t exactly been a model husband—or lover for that matter. He would be the first to admit that he had been… complicated.She propped her hand on her waist, shaking her
[Flashback]“You’re making a huge mistake,” Simon said calmly, his steely gaze fixed on the dark-haired man across the expanse of the long table. “I’m not someone you would want to make an enemy of, Mr. Matthews. I suggest you think again.”Josh Matthews scoffed, a self-assured smirk playing on his lips. “My apologies, Mr. Walsh, but once I make up my mind about something, it’s set in stone. I’m a man of my word, you see. Once I give my word to someone, even I can’t retract it.”Simon had never hated anyone so deeply. Not only had this man in front of him threatened his business, but also his reputation. And that, in Simon Walsh’s world, was an affront of the highest order.His eyes flashed with seething annoyance. “Fine. If that’s how you want to play this.” With that terse remark, he surged to his feet and stormed out of the conference room, his assistant trailing dutifully behind.As he settled into his car and closed the door, Simon finally allowed his emotions to surface. He retri
“What do you mean I don’t know my brother?” Elena couldn’t help but snap, feeling her veins tighten around her face, her fingers curling into fists.It was happening again, wasn’t it?She asked him to tell him every truth he had been hiding from her and he was going to start with how little she knew of her brother. The same old song Derek had sung not too long ago. Upon asking how close he was to her sister-in-law, he had tossed the same bitter words at her, telling her how much of an asshole her brother was, how he was nothing as she had always assumed him to be.Before she could help it, her brows were furrowing and she was scooting to the edge of her seat, wanting to leave as soon as he started to say trash about her brother.Just because Josh wasn’t there to defend himself, didn’t mean everyone would speak poison behind his back. No. She wouldn’t let this happen. She wouldn’t be the witness of this idiocy.To her dismay, however, Simon seemed unfazed by her snap and continued to st
Josh stood outside on the lawn, a steaming cup of coffee waiting for him at the table set outside.“We are ready, sir,” Hudson said as he sat on the table, laptop in front of him.Josh nodded and turned around. “Elena is wearing a neckpiece with a GPS, while my son is wearing a digital watch. Should that be enough?”“Yes, absolutely, sir.” The man continued typing something on the screen, his fingers deftly working over the keyboard.After a few seconds, he lifted his head again. “It’s all yours, sir. The moment you feed in the password and your fingerprints; the system will unlock for 59 seconds. That’s all the time we have before it shuts down again.”Josh sighed, feeling anxious. Do you think it’s enough time?”“It’s hard to say, sir. Depends on how far they are and how quickly our satellites can find them. It might take a few seconds or minutes depending on the location of the GPS devices. But the moment it finds them, we will get the exact coordinates in seconds. It will appear o
“How much more time?” Josh asked as he looked through the window of the jet, gazing at the vast blue ocean below.Hudson checked the time on his wristwatch, humming. “Almost there, sir.”———Simon brought Elena back into their room. She seemed upset by everything he had just told her, but as much as it hurt to see her like that—lost, sad, and heartbroken—he knew it was important for her to know, now that Josh was awake from his coma.He hadn’t told her that part yet, but it was only a matter of time before he had to.He helped her sit on the bed, offering her a glass of water. “Here.”“Thanks,” she said to him, and his chest clenched at how sad she sounded.His phone came alive just then, and even though he could have ignored it and stayed with his beautiful wife to show that he cared, that he was always there for her, he had to answer and see how far Josh had gotten.He leaned down to press a kiss on her forehead. “I need to take this. Will you be alright?”She nodded, not really look
The fleet of black cars pulled up in front of the beach house.Josh stepped out and looked up at the grand structure in front of him. From the dark expression on his face, it was hard to tell what he was thinking. But maybe that was the least of anyone’s concerns, because right now, the purpose for which he had come to the island held more importance than anything else. And that was to bring his sister and son home.Hudson moved forward, but when Simon’s guards stationed outside the house blocked his path, he stopped and glanced over his shoulder, as if seeking permission.Josh took off his glasses and glared at the men. “Tell your boss Josh Matthews has come to see him.”The guards looked at each other, but eventually, one of them stepped back and went inside, only to return and ask the rest of the guards to lower their weapons. He gestured for Josh and Hudson to move inside, but when the other men tried to follow them, Simon’s guards were quick to stand like a wall. “Only these two c
Simon shook his head, chuckling lowly. “You think you can threaten me? That’s rich coming from you. Especially, when you don’t even have that made you so fucking special.”Josh’s eyes widened, but it passed the next second, as if the surprise that claimed his handsome features moments ago never even existed. But then, he started to put the pieces together and all of a sudden, the puzzle that he had been trying to solve since the moment he woke up, became much clearer.Anger burned through his veins and before he could help it, his fingers curled into fists. “You.” He took a step forward. “It was you all along. You did it.”Simon grinned, cocking his head to the side. He raised his glass and took a sip. “Guilty as charged.”Josh didn’t know what he was feeling, but it was hot and white and uncontrollable. “You son of a bitch!” he growled, charging towards Simon, but Hudson was quick to hold him back.Josh struggled, wanting to wrap his hands around Simon’s neck. He wanted to choke him,
Elena hugged herself close, letting the cool breeze of the evening beach dance around her, play with her.Not that she was in the mindset to really enjoy it. Her mind was elsewhere. Lost in the thoughts of its own. Not able to find even a minute rest.“Auntie Elena, look at my feet,” Caleb yelled from the shore.Elena forced herself to snap out of the bustling of her head and watched her nephew getting his feet wet in the waves. The huge grin on his adorable face always soothed down her restless mind. Even right now, she could feel herself warming up to his presence, her chest unfurling in ways she couldn’t really explain.“Don’t get too far, sweetheart. The waves are not as friendly as you think.”“I know, Auntie Elena,” Caleb whined, before running back when the next waves came rushing towards him. “But this is so fun. Even the waves can’t catch me. See? Did you see that? I’m so fast.”That made her laugh. Despite everything going through her head—every question, every doubt, every h
Hey lovely readers,First of all, I would like to say a huge thank you if you’ve made it to the end. It wasn’t an easy journey, I know, but you stayed, and that means everything to me. :)Secondly, let me get straight to what I said I would be talking about in this note.I know a lot of you (probably all of you) must be wondering what happens with Josh next, and what about Angelina, Betty, Caleb, and the other kids.No worries—the reason I decided not to continue their stories here is that I’ll be exploring that story arc in a new book. It will probably be published soon (I’ll do my best, I promise). I realized that Josh’s story needed its own space because there was so much I wanted to write for him, and that couldn’t happen alongside Simon and Elena, who were obviously nearing their happy ending.But yes, it’s impossible to write about Josh without Elena, so Elena and Simon will be making appearances in the new book as well. Maybe sometimes more than I intend, because God knows I lov
After their little party was over and everyone went back to the guest rooms to rest, Elena laid their sleeping daughter in her crib and tucked her nicely.A pair of warm hands slid around her waist from behind, a kiss landed on her shoulder. “Thank you for today. How long have you been planning all this? And how the hell did you manage to invite Josh? I didn’t take him for a party person. Not these days.” He whispered into her ear, making her skin tingle.“You have to ask me how I got your brother to attend? I have my ways of making people do what I want.” She grinned as she turned in his arms and looped hers around his neck.He grinned as well. “Is that right? Do those ways include threatening? Do I want to know the details?” He said jokingly, knowing how Elena is, and she was very much the kind of person who’d go out of her way to make the things that were important to her, happen.“Oh, I think you don’t really want to know. But, I just had to do it for you.”She gave him a light kis
Simon woke up in the middle of the night, his heart racing.He looked around himself, patting his hand around in search of the person he was hoping to find. But to his dismay, there was no one else on the bed with him.“Elena?” he said out loud, frowning at the darkness.His hand patted the sheets and pillow again, trying to feel for her body, but he found nothing. Where was she? Where did she go?“Elena?”No response.He was starting to worry now. Where was she? He could feel a sense of dread slowly filling up inside him. He needed to find her. He needed to know if she was okay.Suddenly, he heard footsteps coming from outside his room. He quickly got out of bed, put on his sweatpants and a t-shirt and opened the door.There was no one in the hallway. It was eerily quiet.He frowned, he could swear he heard someone walk by just now.“Elena, are you here? Please say something, darling. It’s me.” He said as he walked slowly to the end of the hallway, bare feet.Just when he thought he
Elena stood outside the doors, clutching the bouquet tightly in her hands. She was shaking, and she knew that anyone who could see her right now would notice, including her brother, Josh.“You’re not a very confident bride, are you?” he teased.She rolled her eyes, wanting to punch him but refraining from causing any casualties at her wedding.“I’m just nervous, that’s all.”“Understandable,” he said, taking a deep breath. “Trust me, you’re not the only one.”She looked up at him, unsure of what he meant. “What do you mean?”“Simon probably feels way worse. I mean, did you see him before he went into that room with his friends? He was sweating bullets.”She shook her head. “You’re making that up.”“I’m not, I swear!” He chuckled. “He’s just as scared as you are, if not more. And that’s a sight I never thought I’d see in my life.”She smiled a little. “I guess you’re right. He is pretty intimidating.”“Exactly. So you have nothing to worry about.” He patted her shoulder. “You’ve got thi
Richard whistled, and Danika watched as Greg, standing outside the room, appeared and uncuffed him.“What the fuck?” Danika was shocked. “How did you… How did you do that?” She turned to face Greg. “You… you work for me, not him! Cuff him back to the door, you giant imbecile!”“Sorry, miss,” Greg said in a deep voice, “I don’t think I will. Mr. McDowell here paid me a lot more money than you to change sides.”“What?!”“That’s right.” Richard stood up, rubbing his wrists. “This is over for you, Danika. Let’s just end this before anyone gets hurt.”Shocked and now furious, Danika was not someone who would give up so easily. Her fingers tightened around the scalpel in her hand. She would fight. She would not go down without a fight.“You think you can win, Richard? You think you’re so smart, don’t you? Well, you’re wrong. I’m not going anywhere. If I can’t have Elena, then no one can.”Without warning, she lunged at Elena, swinging the scalpel towards her throat. But before she could eve
“Is everything set up?” the first man who carried the unconscious bride asked.“Yes,” Greg, who stood outside the operating theater, nodded. “The room is ready. All the equipment is working fine. Just leave her inside, and that woman will handle the rest.”“Sounds good to me,” the other man said, wiping the sweat off his forehead.“Yeah, me too. I just want to get this over with as soon as possible. I don’t want to be here for too long. My wife and daughter have been going on and on about this wedding, and if they come to know I was part of it, they’ll never let me hear the end of it,” the first one said.“Don’t worry. You’ll be paid handsomely,” Greg assured, opening the door for them. “I’ll make sure of that. We just need to do our jobs and get out of here. Simple as that.”“Fine,” the two men said in unison.Danika was waiting for them next to the table, a smile on her face. “Ah, there you are. Any trouble?”“No. Everything’s fine.”“Excellent. Place her on the table, please.”They
Danika was so damn ready for the final stage of her revenge.She had planned everything meticulously, and now all her efforts were coming to fruition. She was smiling to herself when the phone rang, and she picked it up, already aware of what she was about to hear.“We got her,” the man with the deep voice said. “On our way now. Will be there in twenty.”“Perfect. See you then.”She hung up, unable to stop the grin from forming on her face. Everything was going according to plan. And it was just getting started.She looked around. She was standing right in the middle of an abandoned hospital, the perfect place to host her little celebration. She couldn’t wait to see the look on Simon’s face once he realized his bride was gone. And this time, for good. He would be devastated, broken, destroyed. The thought alone was enough to make her laugh.“What’s so funny?” Richard asked as he walked into what looked like an operating theatre.“Just imagining Simon’s face once he realizes I’ve taken
Simon was pacing outside the bridal suite, restless and nervous. One of the servers had informed him that Elena wasn’t feeling well, and he had dropped everything he was doing to rush over and see if she was okay, or if they needed to cancel the wedding. Because he totally could. Nothing was more important to him than his soon-to-be wife’s well-being.“Come on, open the fucking door! Let me in. Just once. I swear, I won’t even say a word.”“Not yet, Simon,” came the familiar voice of Diana. “We talked about this. You can’t see the bride before the wedding.”“Fuck that. This is a fucking emergency. She’s not answering the phone. What if something’s wrong?”“Relax. She’s fine. She just needs a few minutes alone. The excitement is getting to her. But she’ll be out soon. Don’t worry.”“Diana, I swear to God, if you don’t open the door right now, I’m breaking it down. I don’t care if I have to chop the entire thing down.”“Go away, Simon. Or I’m going to tell Elena what you did the other da
And while celebrations and laughter were being shared in one part of the world, in another corner, a different kind of gathering was being planned—a more sinister, dark, and twisted celebration.“I knew I’d find you here,” a familiar voice whispered in his ear. Richard glanced over his shoulder, frowning at the face he hadn’t seen in a while. But there was no mistaking it. The woman was actually here, and the first thing he wanted to do upon recognizing her was to wrap his fingers around her throat and squeeze until she stopped breathing.“What do you want?” he growled, turning back to his drink as he sat at the bar of one of the elite clubs.“Why? No welcome? Where are your manners, Richie?”He hated it when she called him that.“What are you doing here, Danika? I thought I made it clear you were not to contact me again.”“And I thought I made it clear that I have no intention of backing off until you realize that we both have the same enemy. Until you agree to work with me.”“You are